Can Nemo and Dory Revolutionize How We Teach Math in America?

There’s one reliable way to quiet unruly kids: turn on a Pixar animated film. Teachers using class time to watch a movie is usually viewed as lazy, but a new online curriculum hosted by Khan Academy taps into children’s enthusiasm for these animated films to teach STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts and math).

Pixar in a Box, as the virtual curriculum is known, contains interdisciplinary lessons that parallel real design challenges facing Pixar’s animators. The classes, which are narrated by Pixar engineers, lend credence to teachers’ arguments that school lessons will be applicable to students’ eventual careers, even if the tough math problems don’t seem relevant now. Concepts like patterns and randomness, for example, could end with students crafting their own computer-generated dinosaur skin models, and a class on weighted averages and Pascal’s triangles results in a model character from Monsters, Inc.

Underlying each lesson are the principles of project-based learning: tying theoretical concepts to real-world problems. In doing so, Pixar in a Box’s creators believe students will be more engaged, as they pursue projects they care about rather than being forced to complete assignment after assignment. “A lot of time, when kids ask the question, ‘When am I gonna use this stuff?’ teachers don’t have a good answer,” says Tony DeRose, a Pixar senior scientist. “We want to give them authentic content that they can teach in the classrooms, showing how we addressed creative challenges we faced in the studio.”

In Pixar in a Box: Season 1: Rendering, students learn how technical artists at Pixar use ray-tracing and other mathematical algorithms to calculate pixel color and generate the final frames of a film, as seen in “UP.”

So far, teachers have reported that their students love the collaboration, which gives them an easier way to illustrate the Common Core curriculum. (Pixar employees also enjoy being a part of the program: “Now my parents will finally understand what I do,” is sometimes heard in the offices.)

Brit Cruise, the curriculum’s lead designer, says the collaboration with Pixar is also changing the way Khan Academy makes content. Normally, most of their lessons are one-off modules, but this curriculum ties several concepts together into an interactive narrative experience of how something gets made. He sees the collaboration with Pixar not only as “a chance to make something which I could send back to my younger self,” but also as a way to inspire millions of students to pursue STEAM careers in which they entertain (and teach) the next generation.

MORE: Investing in Future Innovation: This Visionary Program Gets Students Hooked on STEM

LEGO Gets All the Attention, But This Toy Is Even Better at Developing Creativity

Move over, LEGO. Another classic toy is having a renaissance.
Colorful, flexible, and distinctly smelly — Play-Doh has been praised by The Atlantic’s CityLab as “a toy that encourages creative building like Lego, but does it even better.”
As we previously mentioned, some educators argue that since children derive such great benefits from the arts, STEM (for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) should be changed to STEAM (the A stands for arts), to highlight the importance of creative endeavors.
LEGOs have often been considered the STEM toy of choice, but the blocky pieces only fit into rigid angles and can’t change color. The beauty of Play-Doh is how it can create curves, textures and can be mixed into different hues. The possibilities with the squishy dough are truly endless — not to mention that it’s also much less painful to step on in the middle of the night.
MORE: These Women Invented a Toy That Truly Includes Every Child
When used in the classroom or home, the colorful clay can be molded into body parts and organs (check out the awesome ear canal this girl made) or even be used to create electrical circuits. The toy’s manufacturer, Hasbro, even has a 3-D Play-Doh printer on the market.
Another bonus with Play-Doh, as CityLab notes, is how it’s gender-neutral. When it comes to the plastic blocks however, the kits are distinctly marketed to boys (secret agents, dragons, spaceships and robots) or girls (cutesy animals, dream houses, beauty parlors).
It’s unclear if Play-Doh sales have increased due to the emphasis on STEM or STEAM education, but a PR person tells CityLab they’ve shipped one billion cans in the past five years.


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Meet the Professors Who Want to Hack Your Radiator

The radiator isn’t exactly a paragon of energy efficiency. It’s been around for more than two centuries, and for nearly all of that time, people have been opening their windows in the middle of winter to combat overheating and avoid swimming in sweaty sheets. So to solve the problem, a technology company is hooking up a radiator cover to wifi to control temperature shifts more efficiently and make sure those windows stay firmly closed.
The Cozy, as the device is called, fits over the radiator and uses fans to regulate the temperature inside a room, blowing hot air when it’s needed and shutting off when it’s not. People can even use a smartphone to set their preferred temperature.
Radiator Labs, the company behind the Cozy, has installed the devices on 250 radiators at Columbia and NYU for whole-building beta testing. They estimate that each steam radiator wastes an average of 20 gallons of oil a year, with 30 percent of its heat wasted. In cities like New York with thousands of buildings that use old-school radiators to heat buildings, 20 gallons per radiator really adds up.
The company is currently raising money to start production on the Cozy. You can support their Kickstarter project by clicking here (and be sure to check out their video, too!)